How much ground clearance?

[panchovisa]

I'm re-doing my full suspension and I want some reference.

Previously my car was extremely low (1 3/4" to front cross member) which caused problems for street driving.

I want to raise the car, but not too much!

What do others have from bottom of front cross member to ground, and from bottom of rear cross member to ground????????

I'm thinking from 2 1/2'', to 3 1/2", would be in the streetable range for the front. The back I haven't even measured yet.

I want to make it into driveways and over speed bumps (with care), but I want the low look also.

Thanks,

Pancho

[dattozed]

With lowering springs, are your springs sagging that bad or do you have an adjustable suspension and just have it to low.

[gundee]

Pancho's Z is an ex SCCA C production car he is putting on the street.

I will measure mine.

[panchovisa]

Dattozed,

Like Greyghost said my car was sitting at a full race height. I need to get an idea of what height works in real life street driving.

My suspension (old and new) was fully adjustable, and I can set the ride height anywhere I want to.

BUT, the main thing is that the front shocks have only 5.81" (the rears have an inch more) of STROKE. The urethane bump stops steal some of that travel.

I need to know what ride height WORKS for the street/autocross so that I can properly place the shocks in new shortened tubes SO THAT AT RIDE HEIGHT I HAVE EQUAL TRAVEL ON BUMP AND REBOUND.

With the coil overs I can set ride height anywhere, BUT once the struts are shortened the shocks travel is locked in. I know that most people probably have their shocks touching the bottom of tube. It maybe that to do what I want there might have to be a 1/4" to 1" spacer under shock BEFORE I section tube.

I really NEED a good ride height dimension to set my parts up correctly. The front cross member and the very rear cross member are easy places to measure without to mush confusion.

Good dimensions to a 1/4" would be appreciated (along with information about what obsticals you have trouble negotiating).

Thanks,

Pancho

[panchovisa]

Please, anybody with a lowered Z who can share their experience regarding ground clearance would be greatly appreciated.

[2ManyZs]

Well, the old ITS car I had was at 5 inches to the bottom of the rocker panel(ITS rules) and that was a bit low for use on the street. Made for very little clearance on the exhaust, and air dam. Also made for short suspension travel too.

I can get some measurements off one my buddies cars at the next race and measure them at the crossmembers, next race is the 26th.

[Ed]

On mine the front crossmember was about 5" from the ground. I found this a bit too low for a couple of reasons.

1. My jack is 5 1/2 high, so if I wanted to jack the front end up I would always have to drive my car onto a couple of 2x4's.

2. Going over speedbumps was always a nailbiter. I would creap over as slow as I could go because if the bump was a bit too high when my car would come down the exhaust would hit.

3. If you have a front spoiler. Going up and down driveways that had a bit too much angle would result in a scraped spoiler.

You might not see speed bumps or driveways everyday but that one time you do you will find yourself between a rock and a hard place.

$.02

I will be keeping my car at the same height because I love the way it looks.

[gramercyjam]

My Z is looooowwwww too. Probably 3.25" to 3.5" at the rocker panel pinch welds. I don't drive it on the street anymore. It will bottom out on the slightest thing. Especially near intersections where there their are slight ruts from trucks and buses stopping and starting. Speed bumps might as well be the Alps. Heck, I won't take it down my driveway!

Don't you have some old struts you can use to experiment with different ride heights? Start low, test and raise the spring seat (various ways to do this) until you don't bottom out anymore?

[gundee]

I finally got out to where I keep my car. The clearance at the front crossmember is 5-5/8". I don't know what the rocker measurement is. I never had any driveway problems. I could maybe even go a little lower if I wanted. If I had a low front spoiler though I would keep it where it is. Hope that helps.

[2ManyZs]

Actually, I think you'll find the rocker panel and the crossmember measurements to be fairly close, if anything, the bottom of the pinch weld on the rocker might even be a bit lower than the crossmember.

[panchovisa]

Thanks guys!! Guess all I had to do was beg .

I think I'm going to try putting a 1/2" spacer under my shocks and set the ride height at 4" to front cross member (after what it was before, 5" seems like 4x4 territory). I'll take two of my four bump stops and trim them by 1/2". Then after sectioning my struts I can swap spacers from the bottom to the top of shock and switch bump stops between full length and shortened length. Hopefully this will allow me to change ride height by 1" and still not lose all the stroke of the shock (on bump, or rebound) if I plan it out carefully.

Thanks for the help, if I learn anything about this issue I'll let you guys know.

[panchovisa]

Oh I forgot. Before I had to drive my car onto 3" of plywood (6 pieces 1/2" thick gradually ramping over 4 feet length) to get a floor jack under front cross member!!!!

I once got high centered in a gas station on top of one of those under ground tank fill bumps! Had to ask two guys to lift up on roll cage door bar (with door open) while I inched my way off of Mount Everest!